Rejoint: janv. 2018
Messages: 16,884
Mentions "j'aime": 11,896
Largely looks alright, but I'll give a few thoughts on what I think you're off about.
There's no reason to think Tyler Boucher will ever be more than a 4th liner. Decent physical skillset (physical, good shot, skating), but he can't stay healthy and he's not a consistent offensive threat even when he is.
Greig is gonna be at least a 3rd liner, as soon as next year. Has shown well at the NHL level this year, despite being in over his head as a 2C when he's been up. All the pieces are there for him to be an extremely effective player in the NHL. Skates well, good snap on his wrister, plays hard to get under players skin, and he's got really underrated hockey sense which let's him be so effective away from the puck.
Some of the wingers under contract are up in the air right now, namely Joseph, Batherson and DeBrincat. Batherson is a question mark for the obvious reason, but he's also been so frustrating this season with poor play, trying to do everything picture perfect and failing way too often. He's not the same player he was before his injury last year.
I like Joseph, but he's underwhelmed this year, and he'll be the obvious starting spot if Ottawa needs money out this summer.
As far as Cat... who knows. He hasn't really had a proper top 6 C all year, but he also hasn't really shown to be a driver of offense, which he needs to do to warrant that kind of money. I don't like the idea of moving him until you see him what he can do with an NHL calibre head coach, but I don't know how you justify paying him more than Brady or Timmy right now, and I don't think you can risk it on a 1 year deal potentially losing him for nothing.
As far as the bottom pair goes, Ottawa is in a great position with Brannstrom. He's developed into arguably the team's most well rounded Dman, but because he's small and doesn't have offensive production to show, they're gonna be in a great position to get him locked in for cheap. If it was me I'd try and get him for as many years as he'll give you at less than 2mil AAV. the Other spot though... Kleven is probably the front runner long term, but short term they need to bring in someone established. I really thought one of Thomson or JBD would have taken the job by now, but they haven't and Ottawa can't go into next season on hope that they will.
Also bridging Jake Sanderson would be a mistake. They need to make a long term play for him this offseason, like they did with Stützle. This dude is gonna be special. I'd even be willing to swap out Cat for a cheaper top 6 winger to keep that money open.